OXLoadBalancingClustering Filestore

Distributed file storage

The distributed file storage will be set up on the MySQL database master server. Of course it is possible to use a dedicated file server or an already existing storage system, however this guide does not cover that. This has several reasons:

• Open-Xchange Server does not require much I/O on typical operation
• Data for groupware objects like the Infostore is stored at the file storage and file metadata is stored at the database. Consistency between the database and the file storage is critical.

Installation of the NFS server

Open-Xchange Server is able to access various storage backends, NFS (Network File System) is a mature and proven backend. Install the following packages at the MySQL master server to enable NFS storage

$ apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmap

Create a directory for the Open-Xchange Server file storage.

$ mkdir /var/opt/filestore

Open-Xchange Server runs as user open-xchange, create a user account at the NFS server, this is required for accessing the NFS export later. NFS will map the user id (uid) and group id (gid), therefore they need to be equal at the Open-Xchange Server nodes and the NFS server.

$ useradd open-xchange

Check the uid and gid, typically it's 1001:1001 since it's the first user on the system.

$ grep open-xchange /etc/passwd
open-xchange:x:1001:1001::/home/open-xchange:/bin/sh

Make the newly created user own the filestore at the NFS server

$ chown open-xchange:open-xchange /var/opt/filestore

Configure the NFS server to provide this directory to both Open-Xchange Server nodes in read and write mode. Enter the uid and gid of the open-xchange user to the NFS export.

$ vim /etc/exports
/var/opt/filestore 10.20.30.213(rw,no_subtree_check,all_squash,anonuid=1001,anongid=1001) 10.20.30.215(rw,no_subtree_check,all_squash,anonuid=1001,anongid=1001)

Make the changes effective to the running NFS server

$ exportfs -a

Installation of NFS clients

Both Open-Xchange Server machines are NFS clients since they mount the distributed file storage. It's critical that both Open-Xchange Server nodes can access the same filestorage since due to session load balancing it is possible that a user logs in to either one Open-Xchange Server.

Install required NFS client packages on both Open-Xchange Server nodes

$ apt-get install nfs-common portmap

Create mountpoints for the filestore at both Open-Xchange Server nodes

$ mkdir /var/opt/filestore/

Open-Xchange Server runs as user open-xchange, to let this user access the filestore, create a user account at all Open-Xchange Server nodes. NFS will map the user id (uid) and group id (gid) to the ones at the NFS server, therefore they need to be equal at the Open-Xchange Server nodes and the NFS Server.

$ useradd open-xchange
$ grep open-xchange /etc/passwd
open-xchange:x:1001:1001::/home/open-xchange:/bin/sh

Add the NFS storage to the fstab configuration file to mount the storage automatically on boot at both Open-Xchange Server nodes

$ vim /etc/fstab
10.20.30.217:/var/opt/filestore  /var/opt/filestore  nfs  defaults  0  0

Testing the distributed file storage

Mount the filestore manually on both Open-Xchange Server nodes to check if the connection works properly

$ mount /var/opt/filestore

To test the distributed storage, create a file on one Open-Xchange Server node as user open-xchange

$ su open-xchange
$ touch /var/opt/filestore/foo

Then check if the file is available and writeable at the other node also as user open-xchange

$ su open-xchange
$ ls -la /var/opt/filestore
$ rm /var/opt/filestore/foo